Description:
The Irish Linen Centre is a new building adjoining a building in a conservation area in Lisburn town centre. The site is a prestige one in Lisburn's old Market Square. As a market town and an industrial centre, Lisburn has had a connection with the linen industry for more than three centuries. This is symbolized by the use of the market house as the town's museum. The project involved sympathetic design of a new building to house a major visitor attraction and the restoration of an historic building containing the seventeenth century market house. Following the architectural inspiration of the historic market house building, particularly the clock tower, the new structure employs dressed sandstone and copper together with the modern use of glass and stainless steel in a contemporary design. The glazed atrium, which is used as a reception area, allows a physical connection between the old and the new building yet nevertheless maintains the separate architectural identity of each. The large glazed areas on both sides of the ground floor retail areas of the new building echo the open arches of the market house arches. Above the market house is the Museum first floor gallery known as the Assembly Room and decorated in a classical style. Leading from this gallery to the Linen Centre exhibition area is a newly constructed classical style rotunda. This opens onto the atrium bridge on the first floor connecting the old Museum building to the new exhibition area.